Sonoma Rewind: Wine Country Delivered on Easter Weekend

Sonoma Rewind: Wine Country Delivered on Easter Weekend

While the GT America powered by AWS racers started their season in St. Petersburg Florida in February, April marked the season kick-off for the majority of the SRO Motorsports America paddock. Each of the four SRO series ran Easter weekend doubleheaders with over 150 great drivers and 120 of fastest GT and Touring Cars anywhere.  With races running from 40 to 90 minutes it totaled over seven hours of intense competition across two days. 

After experiencing almost every NorCal meteorological annoyance imaginable between Thursday and Saturday, the barometric pressure rose and clouds skipped town, creating ideal track conditions for Easter Sunday racing.

Fanatec GT World Challenge America powered by AWS

Weekend sweeps were the rage in GT World Challenge this weekend. Jordan Pepper and Andrea Caldarelli (#1 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini) took Overall and Pro honors twice.

Misha Goikhberg and Giacomo Altoé (#3 K-PAX Racing Lamborghini) tried to make it a K-PAX 1-2, but fell one position short, finishing third in the Pro class both days.  The runner-up positions in Pro were shared by Stephen Aghakhani and Loris Spinelli (#6 US Racetronics) on Saturday with Russell Ward and Philip Ellis (#33 Winward Racing Mercedes-AMG) splitting the K-PAX duo on Sunday.

Jan Heylen and Charlie Luck (#45 Wright Motorsports Porsche) swept the Pro-Am weekend.  Their closest challengers were George Kurtz and Colin Braun (#4 CrowdStrike Racing by Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG) who finished second on Saturday and third on Sunday.  The remaining Pro-Am podium positions were Chandler Hull and Bill Auberlen (#94 Bimmerworld BMW) scoring a third on Saturday while Ashton Harrison teamed Mario Farnbacher (#93 Racers Edge Motorsports Acura) were second on Sunday.

In Am it was Conrad Grunewald and Jean-Claude Saada (#61 AF Corse Ferrari) doing the double.

GT America powered by AWS

It was a good weekend to be named Jason with the overall and SRO3 class race wins split by Jason Daskalos (#27 Daskalos Motorsports Audi) on Saturday and Jason Harward (#88 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini) on Sunday. George Kurtz (#04 CrowdStrike Racing by Riley Motorsports Mercedes-AMG) and Jeff Burton (#191 Zelus Motorsports Lamborghini) also scored SRO3 podium appearances.

The GT4 class provided wide variety with Steve Dinan (#930 CarBahn with Peregrine Racing Audi) topping Todd Coleman (#69 Smooge Racing Toyota) and Jose DaSilva (#67 Smooge Racing Toyota) on Saturday.  It was Hutton McKenna (#30 Wright Motorsports Porsche), Chris Cagnazzi (#39 Cameron Racing Mercedes-AMG), and Jason Bell (#2 GMG Racing Aston Martin) on the Sunday podium.

The GT America teams have the month of May off and will return to action at VIR in June.

Pirelli GT4 America

The #18 RS1 Porsche of Eric Filgueiras and Stevan McAleer topped the Silver class podium on both days. The #34 Conquest Racing/JWF Motorsports Mercedes-AMG of Gavin Sanders and Michai Stephens were runner-up on both days. Third on both days was the #51 Auto Technic Racing BMW of Austen Smith and Zac Anderson.

Both wins in the popular Pro-Am class went to the #15 BSPort Aston Martin of Bryan Putt and Kenton Koch. The #47 NOLASPORT Porsche of Scott Noble and Jason Hart teamed up for second on Saturday and third on Sunday. The #50 Chouest Povoledo Racing Aston Martin pairing of Ross Chouest and Aaron Povoledo were second on Sunday with the #8 Flying Lizard Aston Martin of Elias Sabo and Andy Lee third on Saturday.    

The Am class wins were split by the #36 Bimmerworld BMW of Charlie Postins and James Clay on Saturday, while the #60 Dexter Racing Ginetta of Ben Anderson and Matt Rivard was supreme on Sunday.

TC America Powered by Skip Barber

Jacob Ruud (#1 Fast Track BMW) kicked off the season with a pair of wins in the TCX class with Stephen Cugliari (#57 Accelerating Performance BMW) and Lucas Catania (#26 Rigid Speed BMW) trading the remaining podium spots.

It was a similar story in TC with Kevin Boehm (#9 Skip Barber Racing Honda) scoring two wins with Mat Pombo (#37 LA Honda World Racing Honda) and Clay Williams (#60 MINI JCW MINI) alternating the second and third sports in the two races.

The TCA wins were split by Carter Fartuch (#16 Skip Barber Honda) and Gresham Wagner (#21 TechSport Racing Subaru).  Each also scored a second with Spencer Bucknum (#5 LA Honda World Racing Honda) third on both days.

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